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'Burn Bible' Display Withdrawn

A Bodmin librarian has sparked a row after putting up a list of books to burn, which included the Bible.

Jesse Foot says he made the display to get more people reading.

But local church representatives are calling it "insensitive" to Christians.

The display was supposed to allow library users to nominate books that they did not like. Among the other nominations were Hitler's Mein Kamf and works by Katie Price.

But it was the inclusion of the Bible that has forced the library's manager to back down. He said, "I'ma Christian myself, I believe in Jesus and I actually believe the Bible is the most important book we have in this library. I actually put it up there because I thought if anything's going to provoke a response it would certainly be that. Maybe I went a little bit too far when I did that.

"I do understand it's controversial. I'm passionate about books and I'm passionate about libraries. The intention here was really to get people in have them take a look at the display and really just promote libraries."

But Bodmin rector Graham Minors said, "It is totally unacceptable to burn a book of faith because books of faith are very precious to those that follow that particular belief. Even the notion of burning that book could raise all sorts of issues.

"If we are trying to raise the profile of the library I think this is not the way to do it. There will be Christians who will be extremely upset about the idea of the bible being burnt."